What is Google Merchant Center? The tool that every retailer should use.

Google Merchant Center is a digital platform where online retailers upload product data that powers Google Shopping ads (formerly product listing ads). Within the Merchant Center, information about your ecommerce store, shipping or taxes is also provided.

All the products you see when you search on Google Shopping were uploaded through Google Merchant Center. In this article we will tell you what it is, how it works and also how you can take advantage of it if you are behind an online store.

Go for it!

What is Google Merchant Center?

Google Merchant Center is a free tool that helps millions of consumers search, discover, and buy products on Google. If you have a Merchant Center account, you can upload and manage your product data so your products appear on Google Search, Google Maps, YouTube, and more.

Does Google Merchant Center cost money?

No. Creating a Google Merchant Center account and showing your products on Google has no financial cost. You can add and manage product listings directly from the Merchant Center.

Whenever you want, you can also complement the organic listings with paid advertising. Paid product ads are displayed more prominently and can reach even more potential customers. With Top Performance campaigns, you can choose your goals without ever having to pay more than your monthly budget limit.

Is Google Merchant Center worth it?

Without a doubt yes. As you might imagine, the main goal of Google Merchant Center is to allow businesses to upload and maintain product information, including images and prices, to display in relevant Google Shopping searches.

Of course, Google Merchant Center also integrates with other Google services, such as Google My Business, to enable robust monitoring and control of Google-based marketing and e-commerce. Which generally facilitates the entire process.

The main benefits of Google Merchant Center

For us, the Merchant Center account has a great benefit: it is the gateway to advertising your products on Google Shopping. It's that simple. It allows you to store essential product information that will later be needed to generate and display your product ads to potential customers who use Google for their product or service searches.

Without Google Merchant Center (GMC), your products will not appear on Google Shopping. Additionally, you can't create product ads unless you add enough product information to your Google Merchant account.

If you sell products directly to consumers, Google Merchant Center is one of the tools you need today. It should be an integral part of your overall digital marketing strategy.

Here's what you need to sign up for Google Merchant Center

Because of its integration with so many other Google tools, setting up Google Merchant Center is a multi-step process:

1. Have at least one existing Google account, although Merchant Center can also be configured for multiple sign-ins.
   
2. A verified website and business within Google My Business, which in turn requires compliance with various Google guidelines, such as providing a valid physical address, contact number, technical support, and a secure payment process.
   
3. Complete product data, including pricing, availability, and shipping information in a format that Google can accept, such as .TXT or .XML files derived from Excel spreadsheets. In some cases, it is also possible to import product data from an existing e-commerce platform.
4. Integration offered by the e-commerce platform to sync all data required by Google Merchant Center.

How to add products to Google Merchant Center?

Once you've registered and added your product information to Google Merchant Center, your products can be displayed organically when customers search for products or businesses like yours on Google Search, Google Maps, and other sites. brand.

These are the 3 ways in which products can be uploaded to Google Merchant Center:

1. Add products from your website. Google can automatically add products you already have on your ecommerce website.
   
2. Add products with a file. Create a file containing all the details of your products (title, description, price and other data).
   
3. Link your eCommerce store. If you already work with one of our e-commerce partners, such as BigCommerce, you can link your store to automatically sync your products with Google. It will be very easy to do it.

If you need more information about how to load the products, in this link, there is a guide to know how to do it with two of the methods discussed above.

The disadvantages of Google Merchant Center

Not everything that glitters is gold, right? At the moment and paradoxically the only drawback that we can observe with Google Merchant Center comes from its advantage (its link with Google Shopping); Therefore, this interface allows you to send optimized ads to Google Shopping for online sales, but in exchange, it is sometimes necessary to comply with some very technical Google Merchant Center specifications for the flow of products.

Furthermore, to send the flow of products it is essential to prepare your catalog in a specific format (XML, CSV or TXT), an operation that may require technical skills that not all retailers or managers of online stores have on hand.

Common issues when creating a Google Merchant Center product feed

When creating a product feed, you may run into some problems. Common problems include incorrect formatting or missing product information. While easy to fix, these issues can cause your products to not show on Google Shopping.

Merchant Center has a feed debugging feature that you can use to identify and resolve issues.

What makes a high-performing product feed?

There are several factors that can help your product feed perform really well. Most of which involve providing Google with as much information as possible about the product. Let's take a look at some ways you can improve the quality of your product feed on Google:

1. Images

Images should be simple and high quality, preferably showing the product on a white background. This shows the buyers exactly what you advertise and increases the likelihood that a curious user will click on your ad.

2. Titles

Los títulos deben ser relevantes y contener sólo la información necesaria sobre el producto. No incluyas términos que no estén directamente asociados con el producto que vendes y asegúrate de que sea obvio lo que vendes.

3. Descriptions

As we've said before, make sure your product descriptions are relevant and appropriate to the product you sell. You can include information such as technical details and visual descriptions in this section to help buyers understand what you're selling.

4. Categories

Google has predefined categories for you to choose from. You must choose the category that best defines your product, whether Electronics or Home and Garden, for example.

5. Product type

The [product_type] attribute allows you to use your own product categorization system in your product data. Unlike the previous category attribute, [product_type] allows you to choose your own value instead of choosing from Google's predefined categories. Using this can help shoppers navigate to your product.

6. Custom labels

Using custom tags can help you organize Google Shopping campaigns based on the attributes that are most important to your business. They are only visible internally and are used for optimization activities.

These may vary depending on your industry, but some common examples include “seasonal,” “sales rate,” and “margin.” They are generally used to help monitor your campaigns.

Now is your turn!

Without a doubt, Google Merchant Center appears to be an indispensable ally to enhance your online presence and sales. With its ability to increase product visibility, integrate with key Google tools, and deliver detailed analytics, it is the key tool for cultivating ecommerce success. So the final recommendation is not to waste it!

Do you need help with the integration of your ecommerce and Google Merchant Center? Don't hesitate to contact us today, we will be happy to help you.